MARKETS TANK: Here's What You Need To Know

An
elephant destroys a minibus after throwing its rider and going on
a rampage during Sri Lanka's sixth annual elephant polo
tournament in Galle February 15, 2007.REUTERS/Buddhika Weerasinghe

Happy October. It was a rough start to the month and the quarter
for the stock market, as each of the major US stock indexes fell
more than 1%. The Dow lost more than 200 points and the Nasdaq
fell 70 points while the Russell 2000, which houses mid and
small-cap stocks, officially moved into a correction as it is now
more than 10% lower than its most recent highs.

First, the scoreboard:

Dow: 16,804.71, -238.2, (-1.4%)

S&P 500: 1,946.16, -26.1, (-1.3%)

Nasdaq: 4,422.08, -71.3, (-1.6%)

And now, the top stories on
Wednesday:

1. It was an ugly day for the
markets. Stocks opened lower and the selling relented only
slightly in the last hour of trading as the markets got off to a
rough start to kick off a new month and the final quarter of
2014. The only sector of the S&P 500 that didn't see a
complete rout was utility stocks. The price of
oil fell again on Wednesday after a brief rally following
Tuesday's rout. US Treasury bonds, meanwhile, rallied on
Wednesday with the yield on the US 10-year falling to 2.4% and
the 30-year falling to 3.11%.

2. The Russell 2000, which
houses mid and small-cap stocks, officially
fell 10% from its most recent highs, taking the index into
correction territory. The S&P 500 still remains about 5% away
from a correction, which that index last saw back in
2012.

3. The European Central Bank
is set to hold its latest policy meeting on Thursday, and
Business Insider's Mike Bird
has the complete preview. The central bank is expected to
keep interest rates unchanged, but the market will mostly be
looking for additional details from ECB president Mario Draghi
regarding the bank's asset-backed securities purchase
program.

4. Ahead of the latest ECB
policy announcement,
Germany issued 10-year bonds at a new record low yield of
0.94%. This debt sale reflects the declining inflation
expectation in Europe, and in comments on Bloomberg TV on
Wednesday, hedge fund manager
David Tepper said that until Mario Draghi acts, and until
there is inflation in the Eurozone, nothing will happen with
bonds.

4. US automakers
reported September sales on Wednesday, with the pace of sales
slowing to an annual rate of 16.43 million vehicles, below
expectations for sales to come in at 16.5 million and below last
month's 17.45 million. Among the notable US automakers reporting
sales, Chrysler and General Motors reported sales that grew more
than expected, while Ford sales fell more than expected.

5. ADP
released its latest private payroll report on Wednesday,
showing that companies added 213,000 jobs in September, up from
August's revised addition of 202,000 and better than the 205,000
that was expected by economists. Following the report, Ian
Shepherdson at Pantheon Macro said: "In one line: Solid, and
perhaps suggests upside risk for Friday’s official
data."

6. In addition to ADP's
payrolls report, we also got manufacturing data from both ISM and
Markit, as well as construction spending data from the Commerce
Department. ISM's
manufacturing report slowed more than was expected by
economists, while Markit's manufacturing PMI
remained strong but dropped slightly from August's reading.
Construction spending was also weak,
falling 0.8% in August against expectations for a 0.5%
increase.

7. Airline stocks were notably
weak on Wednesday, with some traders attributing the move in the
sector to concerns regarding Ebola. Among the
notable losers in the airline space were Delta, American
Airlines, and Southwest, which all fell more than 3% on
Wednesday. On Tuesday, the CDC
confirmed the first case of Ebola in the US, sending shares
of a number of drug companies working to make Ebola cures higher,
notably Tekmira Pharmaceuticals, which gained 18% on Wednesday.
Shares of Lakeland Industries, which makes hazmat suits, also
rallied on Wednesday, gaining just less than 30%.